OFFERINGS

Hero opens on a more bleak and fearsome world than the usual church musical. And that's just the launch pad for a captivating mix of hip-hop, rock, ballads, world music and more that accompanies this take on Christ living in modern New York City.

Christian music veterans Eddie DeGarmo and Bob Farrell wrote the piece and assembled an A-list of talent with five Grammies and 21 Dove Awards just between the three leads: Michael Tait (Tait, dcTalk), Rebecca St. James and Mark Stuart (Audio Adrenaline).

The success of gospel and spiritual music depends largely on emotion, as well as the listener's ability to connect with the song's deliverer. A young and prosperous person singing about death and suffering might not be as effective as an older person crooning solemnly about the passing of a mother.

Who better to sing about repenting or being born again than hardened convicts?

The late Harry Oster, an English professor at Louisiana State University, recorded the album's 22 songs in the 1950s at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The remarkable selections offer insight into the Southern gospel styling of that era.

The amazing improvisational skills of Robert Pete Williams on guitar and vocals are featured prominently. The inmate, who was paroled in 1959, was illiterate and learned about the Bible orally.

When I Lay My Burden Down is previously unreleased and reveals that Williams was influenced by some of the more popular gospel acts of the day, such as the Soul Stirrers and the Sensational Nightingales.